Alright, everyone, welcome to Springcrest Baptist Church.
We would all turn in our hymnals to song number 493.
When I can read my title clear
Sorry for 93
That's church today on a first Sunday of July.
And right there, if you don't have a bulletin,
you can raise your hand and if you'll pass out
some bulletins, please.
Today's July 6th, we have our Sunday, the bulletin, yeah.
Sunday morning services at 10 30 a.m.
Sunday evening, 4 30 p.m. Wednesday service, 5 30 p.m.
And then our sole winning time is at 2 p.m.
Our set sole winning time,
but we also have other sole winning times coming up.
This week's verse is Psalm 23.6 if a child can quote the verse at the end of the week to a non-family member
They'll get some ice cream with the parents permission, of course
And then if they can quote the whole verse at the end of the entire section
Then we will go ahead and get them a special gift card the adults
You have to wait till the end, but if you can quote the entire chapter as well, then we'll do that as well
souls one for
2025 year to date
152 and then we have the July happenings there. We have all the birthdays coming up
With Gentry starting on the 16th
Boaz is in a couple of days and then we have Aubrey
Lucy Victor and Kevin all at the end of the month like one right after the other
They all just liked it 26 27 28 then we have the
anniversaries that weren't planned on purpose, but the Rogers and the Montos have July 24th.
And then the Miranda's is July 15th. And then we have some upcoming events for the church.
We have a soul winning marathon on the 19th of July. So we ended up doing Mo and I. We've
been trying to kind of coordinate with all the families. And man, it's just, it's really
tough because everybody's busy. And you know, everybody lives far and we have different
We just decided we're just gonna put stuff on the schedule and whoever can show up great and whoever can't great also
You know, we're just gonna we just got it. They say 90% of winning is showing up
So we're just gonna keep adding stuff that you can show up to so on July 19th. We have the soul winning marathon
from
Probably nine o'clock in the morning till about four
And then on July 26th, we have a church workday,
you know, just deep cleaning, decluttering,
there's painting, there's a ton of stuff to do in the church.
So, depending on the number of people that show up,
I'm also gonna probably add a Spanish service.
It'll be short notice this first time,
but once a month, we're gonna start doing a Spanish service
on a Saturday.
It'll probably be next Saturday,
just because of the way we already have the schedule.
But regardless, I want to get that done.
And then the other thing I was just talking to Christian about probably before the end of the summer will have a soul winning like
training or seminar where we'll come in on a Saturday.
We'll spend half a morning just going through the gospel,
kind of guiding you guys through it,
and then after that we'll go and put that to practice.
I just found out some people in our church
are silent soul winners, but they want to go
and actually give the gospel.
And so some training like that would be good.
And then we have the men's retreat,
August 14th through the 16th.
Please get with me if you're interested in going.
I already have two or three guys like lined up.
What we'll probably do is just rent a small vehicle
and just all head up there.
That way nobody has to worry about transportation.
Steadfast just needs to know
so that we can also have accommodations.
It's just a camp style.
It's rough living or semi rough, right?
We're not like sleeping outdoors.
And Pastor Shelley was gracious enough to invite our church.
And then we have the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship also at Steadfast, August 27th
through the 31st.
Let me know.
Brother Mike will most likely preach the morning service that Sunday because I'll be preaching
at Steadfast.
And Pastor Cobb will be preaching the evening service that day, the last day of August.
So we'll get all of that to you.
442 and brother Moe will lead the singing. There's nothing else. Oh, you know what? There is I'm sorry the prayer request
I forgot to go over that in the morning
Just keep praying for her in the back and if there's any addition to the prayer quest
Let me know also. Can you just raise your hand? Did you get a text from us for the the services and the prayer request now?
Okay, good. Let me on there you guys can text me back if you're not getting the text. Let me know
We're updating stuff, but on there would be great if you guys say hey take these people off or add these people
Because we want to be diligent about prayer. This is kind of our theme on top of everything else for this year. All right. Thank you
All right page 442 in our hymnals
Song 442 trusting Jesus
And our songbinders, we'll turn to Psalm 67.
Psalm 67, and our songbinders.
turn our Bibles to Proverbs 22, Proverbs chapter 22, we'll read there in the Bible where the Bible
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver
and gold.
The rich and poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all.
A prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideeth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.
By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.
Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward.
He that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
The rich ruleeth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity, and the rod of his anger shall fail.
He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed, for he giveth of his bread to the poor."
Cast up the scorn and contention shall go out, yea, strife and reproach shall cease.
He that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friend.
The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor.
The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
The mouth of strange women is a deep pit.
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
He that oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich shall surely come to want."
Bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise and apply thine heart unto my knowledge
For it is a pleasant thing if thou if thou keep them within thee
They shall with all be fitted in thy lips that thy trust may be in the Lord
I have made known to thee this day even to thee have not I written to thee excellent things in
councils and knowledge that I might take
that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth, that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee.
Rob not the poor because he is poor, neither oppress the afflicted in the gate, for the Lord will plead their calls and spoil the soul of those that spoil with them.
Make no friendship with an angry man, and with the furious man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul.
Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are suretease for dead.
If thou has nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?
Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.
See as thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings, he shall not
stand before men.
Let's have a quick word of prayer.
Your Father God, thank you for this day,
thank you for this chapter on Proverbs.
Lord, I just pray that you fill the pastor with your spirit,
helping to preach a bold and accurate sermon, Lord.
And I pray that you help us all to receive
the message of gladness, Lord,
and help us to apply it to our day to day lives.
And Lord, I just pray that we all get home safely today.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Amen.
and Proverbs 22 Proverbs 22 and let me just get this set up here guys we need to learn to use
both mics we have two mics but we just we haven't learned to use them properly yet
but the title of the sermon this evening or this afternoon is raising godly children raising godly
And the first thing I want to say before we even get into the, I guess the verses that
trigger this and all this stuff, I've been thinking about this because I think that there's
a lot of misinformation out there about how to raise children.
So let me just first put a couple of disclaimers and preface a couple of things.
to apply it properly in our lives independently to each one of our
families. So number one, my goal with today's sermon is to teach you from the
Word of God how to raise godly children. That's number one. Number two is, let me
just start a stopwatch here. Number two is I will, unfortunately or
I have children and I have methods that I've implemented and I might give
suggestions or opinions but I would say take those with a grain of salt because
everybody has their own children and they have their own mind and you should
apply the word of God accordingly to the way that you've figured it out because
I've sat through many sermons in the past even before I had children where you
know maybe preachers will try to tell you how to raise children or lead a
But based on their own personal experience, and I'm not interested in that, I'm not interested
in telling you how to raise your family my way or the highway.
What I am telling you is that you do need to raise your family God's way.
Or it's the highway that's number one number two anytime you have a title like raise godly children
people think that you're giving them the end all to
You know this thing that we call raising our children and the thing that I want to emphasize is when I say raising godly children
I'm not telling you they're gonna live godly for Christ
I'm just telling you you need to raise them according to the Bible and at least get a couple things right because there is no
Guarantee when they get older that they'll even live for God
And I'm going to prove that to you from the Bible as well.
But what I want to do is make sure that as parents, you know, that are going to church and reading your Bible,
that you wouldn't implement the things that God said.
Because we have a lot of feelings, we have a lot of opinions, not only personally but even in this world,
about what we should or shouldn't do, but honestly,
we shouldn't be interested in all that, what we should be interested in is in the Word of God.
And so when I say raising godly children, I'm talking you raise them in your home according to
God. Once they leave your home, you know, I mean, they're going to be free young men and women to
do as they please in the eyes of God, and they'll either be punished or blessed according to God.
Today in the morning, Pastor Cobb preached and he said, hey, a lot of people say, well, what if you
And as a parent, if you don't raise your children according to God,
in the Bible, that's between you and God,
and you know who's going to suffer, you and your family.
So...
I want to get this thing right, clear it up,
because I think a lot of people also misconstrue things.
In the 90s, we had it easy, because we had this term,
it was a very popular term, Pastor, you'll remember this,
but in the 90s, my generation grew up,
and whenever we went to a church to visit,
everybody would always point out who?
The PKs, remember that?
And the DKs.
They're like those are the worst children in any church, right?
The preacher's kids and the deacon's kids
But now we have like this shift where everybody thinks that just because you have children and you're a preacher that your children should be like
Perfect. Let me first of all remind you I'm gonna say stuff in here
They might not even add up to like the way you think I'm raising my children
I'm not interested in what you think about me or how I raise my children
I'm interested in preaching the Bible to you today, right?
That's number one. Number two, I want to remind you that you and me and our children are all sinners.
We've all fallen short of the glory of God.
So as diligent as I try to be raising my children, you know what they are? They're children.
As diligent as you are trying to raise your children their children. There's two things that I'd like to at least
Hope that you get out of this number one
Of course, I think I've overemphasized that I'm gonna continue emphasizes that you follow these tenants based on the Bible
Because the Bible doesn't give us specifics on how to spank our children other than using
the rod, how hard, these things.
But obviously you're going to use common sense, you're going to use your mind, you're going
to use discernment, things like that.
But number two is as we are in church and we're growing church, and I think it's important,
we now have more children, which is something that's a true blessing, but we need to balance
that out, right?
We, especially we that are parents, need to be both loving and patient and need to figure
out how to reprove and rebuke through the church and to the parents, the children in
church, because at the end of the day, children are children, right?
Like we drive an old 2003 Sequoia and my, the person who sold it to us as a family member
and he's like, man, you've really gotten the, the, the milder thing.
And I'm like, yeah, and I'm not looking to change it anytime soon.
You know why?
And you know what, I have a rule.
Hey, whenever we go on a road trip,
you pick up the trash and you don't make a mess
and don't spill anything
and make sure you keep the car clean.
And you know what,
what are all the rules that have been broken?
They leave the trash and they spill all the drinks
and they make a mess and all the seats are stained.
You know, obviously we're clean when we were teaching them,
but they're children, you know, things are gonna happen.
That doesn't mean they don't get reproved depending on the situation, but they do, they get reproved and I'm going to hopefully spread this out and gear this towards the dad more so than the wife, because it's the dad's duty to figure this whole thing out.
I mean, there's no other way to say it, but we're the leaders of the house.
So there are a ton of verses.
There's a verse specifically that says, hey, the woman should stay at home and guide the
home and raise the children, you know, and have children.
But she needs the husband's direction on how to make sure that that's implemented the way
the husband wants.
Like in my home, things are done my way.
And if I'm not happy with something, I bring it up.
But let's go there to Proverbs 22.
I know that was kind of a long disclaimer,
and there's a couple of things.
But this is kind of a touchy subject,
not in the sense from a biblical standpoint,
but from a preaching standpoint, because anytime
that you touch a subject that's personal and close to home
to someone's close to their heart,
they're going to have an opinion about it.
right? I mean, anytime you preach on a clear gospel message, people are going to get mad.
Anytime you preach against the reprobates, they're going to get mad. Anytime you preach about
wives submitting to their husbands and staying at home, they're going to get mad. Anytime you preach
about how you should raise your children, they're going to get mad. Not only from the world's
perspective, but even the Christians. Everybody has a spectrum, but the reality is that God gives
us clear instructions. I'm not going to try to preach from a spectrum. I'm just going to tell
On occasion, I'm going to give you my opinion because I do have children and I do have methods that I use,
but I don't care that you implement my methods, I just care that you implement God's methods.
So let's go there, Proverbs 22. This one really stood out to me.
I like verse 3, it says,
You know our children are not prudent, right? That's why they're constantly getting punished. That's why they're constantly getting corrected
Number six, and of course this is not applied to children
I'm just making an emphasis on that that we want to raise them right but the main verse that I want to focus on there is verse six
And then verse 15 train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old
He will not depart from it and one of the things I want to point out is I've always heard this preach like hey
If you train up a child and they make you the assumption you're gonna train them up godly
But really, the Bible just says train up a child and the way it should go.
So look, if you're training them up to be losers, or drug dealers, or fighters, that's
the way they're going to go.
So it's our duty to train them up godly, and that way they will always come back to it.
They will not depart from it.
And you know, one of the things I've noticed is people that grow up going to church.
Even if they depart for a while in their teenage years or early 20s, you know what they end up doing?
They end up just coming back, right?
Once that I grew up, I didn't grow up saved, but you know what I did?
I grew up going to church every Saturday because we're seven minutes. We're at church.
And you know what? We're out now every Sunday. We're at church Sunday morning, Sunday evening,
Wednesday, it doesn't matter. We're at church, right?
Verse 8 says, he that saw it the liquidy shall reap vanity and the rod of his anger
shall fail." So we shouldn't apply the rod like in iniquity, right?
Foolishness in verse 15 says,
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child,
but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
You know, a lot of people get offended when you say, well, you know, my kid's dumb.
Oh, you shouldn't say that about your kid. The Bible literally says,
There's nothing more frustrating than your children just being dumb
You say that sounds harsh. It sounds cracked. No, it's just biblical
You know, that's the only way to get smart is that's why we have schools and we teach them and they have to learn how to read
And they have to learn how to write and they have to learn how to ride a bike
They have to learn how to go to the restroom, you know, we have to it's called potty training. I mean all these things
If an adult showed up and didn't know any of these things, what would we think he's either got a disease or he's dumb, right?
I mean, literally, Pastor was talking about how there's been a generation in our country's
history that was a higher percentage of illiterates.
How did they get to be illiterate?
Because somebody didn't raise them up and train them up in the way that they should go.
So we need to remember, when we're dealing with our children, that foolishness is bound
in the heart of a child.
It doesn't matter what you think or how you feel about the situation, just children are
Right verse 17. I love this is is bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise and applying thine heart into my knowledge
for it is pleasant thing if thou keep them with thee, they shall with all be fitted in thy lips,
that thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee,
have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge,
that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth, that thou mightest answer the words
that send unto thee. I love that because we as parents also need to remember we're God's children
and we're also rebellious and we're obviously foolishness is imbound in our heart but we still
have a foolish nature right anytime we activate the flesh we're just as rebellious and frustrating
Right as a way of introduction just go over to 1st Peter 5 8, but I'll turn over to 2nd Timothy real quick for you
We know these verses so so but it's important that we make these points in 2nd Timothy 4 verse 2 the Bible says preach the word
Be instant in season out of season, but I like this
Reprove rebuke
Exort with all long suffering and doctrine. Well, look as a as a as the as the leader of your home
It's your duty to not only preach the word
All the time
Whether your kid likes it or not you preach it in number two. It's our duty to reproof which is kind of like a
You know a stern
Way to get onto people rebuke as you you know when you're like shut up
Right, you know, I've ever had a kid just run your rag and you're like just I need you to shut up
I need you to be quiet
And then you just let that's like a rebuke right the first one's like hey son or hey daughter
Can you guys stop doing that, please? Yes, daddy. Okay, perfect. Hey, I just didn't I ask you to stop doing that
Please can you stop doing that? There's gonna be some consequences if you don't do that
Yes, yes, I you know and then eventually they keep doing it like didn't I tell you to stop doing that
Didn't I just say three times?
Four times that you need to stop acting that way. Yes, sir. Sorry. No, you're not sorry because if
you were sorry, you wouldn't have done it, right? You know, that's how we act as parents. And then
exhort is basically beg of son, daughter, please. There's a reason why I'm asking you not to do
this or do that or whatever, right? And it's the same thing in church. It's the same thing that
God does in our lives, right? And then right there in 1 Peter 5, 8, the Bible says be sober,
as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour and as an introduction it's a short introduction is that
there is a war
for the next generation and
I don't think that the past generations have done a good job of teaching us how to be good parents
Right because our parents at least my parents and their generation
Constantly reminded us about all the baggage they carried into fatherhood and motherhood
Which I mean, I know that everybody has challenges, but how is that the child's problem?
right
Our duty is just to preach the whole counsel of God and to correct our children in the way
And I know there's people in here that maybe aren't married or they don't have kids yet
This is still a good sermon number one because you're God's child and he's correcting you number two one day
You're gonna have children
right
Raising godly children and I'm gonna give you biblical instructions and examples
Raising them godly does not assure that they will be godly
It doesn't ensure it at all
It helps
but it doesn't insure it, right? But at least they'll be saved, and I wrote in my notes 90-10,
because look, your goal is to get your children saved first of all. 90% of Christians are never
going to do anything for God, and you know what? That 90% might be filled with your children.
I hope not, right? That's not the goal, but I mean, that's the reality.
The devil is after your children.
I mean, it's in the school system.
That's why we're pro homeschooling.
It's in the media.
That's why we're careful what we watch
or what we shouldn't watch, right?
It's even in the churches.
I just got back from visiting my family in Dallas
and Mary Sarah, one of her old church friends that
they grew up with. That's a really good friend of Mary Sarah and her older sister, because
her older sister is only a year older, came over to visit. Every time we go, she visits.
Right? I'm not going to give you your name because it's actually, it's not about her.
I just, she's a really good friend. She still goes to the church, LaVon Drive Baptist Church,
the church where I met my wife, an independent fundamental Baptist church back in the days of
This church was built. They literally have an entire history. They have a bus ministry.
They've had hard preaching. They've done like wonders and all this stuff. And they said they
just recently changed the bylaws. And they're no longer King James only. They're NASB.
A Baptist church that got rid of the King James only. I said give it less, I give it,
I was nice. Somebody was actually correcting me and said, I don't think it's that long.
I said give it less about a decade. They won't even be Baptist.
Right, but the church is undermining godly authority. I
Mean, how do you how do you expect your kids to stand on something if you as a church?
Keep moving the black hole
Right, but God's word gives us a pattern right in Proverbs 22. We see it. It's not a suggestion
It's a command
Right, I mean obviously we the reason we're positive about this because this is trained up a child
And it's found in the Bible, but we've got to take it in the right context
You know for me when I read that verse I keep thinking about it
I'm like it's a stern reminder that I need to train them up in God's word
Right because I'm constantly training my children. You know
It's not do as I say not as I do because monkey see monkey do
And monkeys are foolish right and our children are foolish. They're like little monkeys running around sometimes. I'm not saying they're animals
I'm just saying monkey see monkey do
It's not just like oh well I I train up my children, you know, we have Bible reading time we take them to church
We do these stuff. Yeah, but what about all the other things all the times that you're not doing that?
They're watching you as anyways, right every time you you maybe say something or do something
Right isn't that one of the biggest gripes of in your teenage years? Oh
Dad expects me to do this, but he doesn't do it
Right. I mean, it's a stern discipline of our lives that we need to guide our children the correct way
Go over to fees and six really quick
Let me give you the first point is a way of introduction. I said there's a war
for the next generation
But the first point or the second point I have for you today
Because I haven't numbered the first point was the intro right but the second point is
the importance of godly instruction and as men you know you're not just
instructing your children by reading the Bible to them by having them quoted
but you're also instructing your children by the way that you act by the
way that you lead them by the way that you assist your wife and lead your wife
and act around your wife by the way that you act around your peers by the way
Because we're not machistas, like some people have called me and accused me because they know I'm Mexican.
You know, Amacho is like the extreme of what the Bible teaches, which is the man as the head of the household.
But you know, Amacho expects to come home and like his slippers be out.
And by the way, let me say, we're not pro-feminists, I'm just saying.
I expect things when I get home, like I expect my wife to have dinner, and I expect her to make sure that she takes care of me.
She knows that I'm working hard and all that stuff.
But I'm also not an idiot to know that she's been with the kids all day.
And there's occasions where I just need to step in and help out.
Now, that's not the run of the mill. That's not what I do every day.
But, you know, there's times where you just got to, as a man, you're not like just removed from all duties.
My duty as a man is even harder than that of a woman because my duty is to provide and to show up
It's a set proper expectations
But also for my family to know that when it my time is needed above and beyond I'm gonna be there above and beyond even
When I don't feel like it
Right
That's the importance of God the instruction because if you look at the ministry of Christ
I mean all his whole goal was just to show up and die for us, right?
I mean if we want to really simplify it
We don't know I mean necessarily I mean you could make the argument you didn't need the three years of ministry for him to just
Make somebody angry get sacrificed die for our sins pay for them, and then we go to heaven
but obviously he ministered for three years leaving us a ton of instruction and a ton of things and even pastor main mentioned to the
Fact that he did so much that there's not enough volumes of the world to fill the books like we would run out
Right that's above and beyond
He didn't do just enough and neither as men we don't just we're not expected to do just enough
You're there in Ephesians 6 by the way the verse I'm going to give you we know them
But I'm really going to try to extrapolate things that we haven't maybe thought about or thought about recently right
The importance of God the instruction is that we want that promise for us and our children right in Ephesians 6 1 through 4
but
This is not innate
In our children, it's not an anus. We have to learn it somewhere. What I'm talking about. Well, the Bible says children
And by the way, the children in here you better be paying attention
If not parents, you better get your children to pay attention because this is really important
It says children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right
It didn't say it's fair doesn't say you're gonna like it or not like it. It's just right
My children are against to the age where all of a sudden things aren't fair. You know what? I don't care. They're just right
Period Bible says honor my father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you
And the Dalmatians live long in the earth and ye fathers
Provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up to the nurture and admonition of the Lord, which by the way
Provoking not your children to wrath
means that like you're pushing them beyond like normal anger look when you
get after your kids your kids are gonna get mad period I've never seen a kid
who likes getting spanked or who likes being corrected wrath is like this blind
rage obviously provoking your children wrath is like an extreme
Because people like to take this out of context.
I've seen it so much online where people are like,
well, you should provoke your children to wrath,
and your children are angry at you,
and so maybe you're not doing something right.
Your children are angry at you a lot.
I mean, just tell them that they can't have ice cream
at 10 o'clock in the evening, and they're gonna be mad.
Like, you're some kind of bad guy.
Sorry for loving you and not wanting you to have bad teeth or throwing up in the middle of the night.
Sorry for caring about your weight and, you know, your future diabetic problem. Sorry about that.
Right?
But right here, it's not innate for children to obey their parents.
It's not innate for us to honor our fathers and our mothers.
You know, we need to know that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live along earth.
And then it says,
you father's provoking your children to wrath,
but bring them up into nurture.
And I love that.
I love that God didn't stop there
because most people take it out on a consensus,
but hey, that doesn't mean that you don't nurture
and admonish them in the admonition of the Lord.
God wants us to get onto our children.
God wants us to correct them.
And I think a good way to describe this is,
look, we don't punish our children.
Now, modern vernacular uses the word punish,
but from a biblical perspective, punishment is what?
Like you're being damned to hell.
God's taking you out for a reason.
When God loves on us and he corrects us,
he chastises us, it's a correction.
Right when I spank my children when I get on to them. I'm not looking to throw them in a dungeon
I'm looking to correct them. I'm looking to get them on the right path. Hey, you're rearing off
Let me just nudge you in the right direction, right?
If you were in a race and I was with them and they're pushing me off the lane
I'd nudge them back in their lane, right? It's who's ever run like a cross-country race
Remember those guys would nudge you and try to get that that's kind of the way I look
You know you even a horse with blinders still needs a rider and a whip
Right and that's the they have the blinders on but you know the distractions are part of life
Go over to Deuteronomy 6. Go to Deuteronomy 6, but there is the importance of godly instruction
I'm not talking about the book you read or what your parents did or what some guy gave you opinion on at church
Or even what I might tell you I'm telling you you need to and I love that the Bible actually gives it to you in this very general thing
Because people I've heard people maybe even kind of insinuate that God doesn't give us a lot about raising children
But he gives us enough
He gives us the basics because the rest is for us to implement because not everybody
Reacts the same way, right? I have three children and let me tell you
None not one of them is like the other
They're completely unique in their own
Personalities in their own way. So what works with one doesn't work with the other
My my two and a half year old
Reverse psychology doesn't work on her. She's such an introvert that when we kind of try to play the FOMO game
You know, we're like, hey, can you do this and they're like, you know, how you do with kids
You're like, hey, you know they're toddlers
You're like, hey, do you know, can you go do this for us and they're like no or they just don't want to do it
Be like, okay. Well, let's all go do it
And you know usually the ones that are left out would like go do it. My daughter's like, yeah, sure. I don't
Go do it. She doesn't care, right? So it's different. So I've got to be more stern on her than the other two, right?
My son's a boy. I'm not going to treat him the same way as I treat the girls. I have a double standard
Just so you because it's that way if we get blamed about I'm just telling you right ahead of time
I have a double standard
But go to do around me six verse four the Bible says hero Israel the Lord our God is one Lord
And thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might and these words
Which I command you this day shall be in thine heart and thou shall teach them diligently unto thy children
And thou shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house
And when Thou walkest up by the way, when Thou liest down, and when Thou rises up,
and Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon Thine hand, and they shalt be as frontless
between Thine eyes, and Thou shalt write them upon the post of Thy house, and on Thy gates.
Hey, I take this seriously. In our house, we don't have all the nice decorations, but like,
there's literally papers of like the books of the Bible and Bible verses, and they're pasted
Right. I'm constantly quizzing my kids on the 66 books of the Bible or some Bible verse or something
We learned and even then sometimes they're on it and then sometimes I'm like, were you not paying attention to anything that I said?
You know, it's got to be driven. It's got to be constant
The Bible says you got to you got to love the Lord with that all that hard and with all that soul with all that might
Because it takes a lot. It's a it's a life of discipline
disciplining your children
Turn over to Psalm 78
But there's an importance in it because it's important to God
God wants us to not only love him with everything that we have but he wants us to raise our children to do the same
From a very basic level it's just to carry the next generation over from a broader level
It defines a nation it defines history
Psalm 78 verse 1 says, Give ye ear, O my people, to my law,
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable.
I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known,
and our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children,
showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord
and to strengthen his wonderful works that he hath done.
for he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their
Children that the generation to come might know them
Even the children which should be born who should arise and declare them to their children
That they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God
But keep his commandments and might not be as their fathers
A stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart to write and whose
spirit was not steadfast with God.
You know, I don't do any disclaimers like, hey, the part of the scripture I'm going
to preach on, it's kind of rough, so maybe you should get your children out of the congregation.
Right as a preacher, it's my duty to just preach God's word and not planting me any
File or defiling images in your mind the Bible does that it preaches some hard stuff and it does it
I mean, what did it say there in Psalm 78 it says?
Give ear on my people to my law and climb your ears to the words of my mouth
I will open my mouth in a parable and what does it say?
I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known and our fathers told and what does it say?
We will not hide them
from the children.
Hey,
nothing is too scary for a child in the Bible.
Nothing is too out of bounds for a... look, if they don't understand something in the Bible,
that's God's way of protecting them, and then when they get older, they'll figure that out.
But at least they heard it, and they've heard it, and they've heard it.
Then one day they get married, or they face some situation,
they'll get that aha moment and be like, oh, that's what the Bible meant in Romans 1.
Oh, that's what the Bible meant in Genesis 19 and Judges 19, look, I'm not going to go
above and beyond what God says, so I'm not going to defy your children.
Your children need to be in the congregation listening, because even the babies, I'm looking
at a little baby right now that's being held in the arms, even that baby is processing
all this information.
My dad told me before my kids were born, he said, you start disciplining your child from
He said I'm a doctor that's been around for 40 plus years my dad's been a doctor for over 40 years
And he said the one thing that always stood out to me when I did my residency
We had to do rounds and all doctors have to do that
They have to do rounds in every single department and he says and when I went to the nursery
He said I was impressed because growing up
I would watch parents with their babies and their babies cry all night
And they cry at all hours and they're always like these like basically bats out of hell and he says
But then when you go to the nursery, which they don't do anymore, but
For those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s,
remember all the babies were put in one nursery.
And he said, when you go to the nursery,
there's not a single baby crying,
except for maybe one through the night.
And the reason is, because the nurses don't baby the babies.
He said, the nurses only do react to babies for three reasons.
They're either hungry, right?
They're sick, or they're dirty.
That's it.
They're either hungry they're sick or they're hungry the problem is the baby starts to cry
After you've checked all those three things, and you go take care of the baby
And then you know what the baby starts to do he starts to figure out. Oh if I cry
they'll come get me and
If I cry like this, they'll do this for me. You know what it's called manipulation
And then you wonder why when we get older, we're so manipulative, right?
I mean, that's just, it's human nature, right?
Who's ever seen those videos of like the parents getting onto the baby and then they walk away
and the baby stops crying, but as soon as they come into the picture, the baby starts,
I mean, they walk away, the baby stops crying, and then they come into the picture, the baby starts crying
because the baby's just waiting, they're not really, you know, you ever seen kids do that?
All kids do that.
All right, that's why we have to be stern in that and by the way
That's like a medical fact like obviously
Because I've heard moms and moms have a certain instinct
That's where the father and the mother need to work together and the moms know they have an instinct for that type of crime
But it's as a father. It's our duty to say hey, you know, I know you have the instinct, but I think you're overdoing it
Because moms have a nurture side and sometimes they do overdo it. You know, I'm the disciplinary in our home
That doesn't mean my wife doesn't discipline the children. It just means that she's really nurturing and loving
You know what I have to do sometimes. I'm like
Mary Sarah, you have to spank the children
As a matter of fact, if you don't do it
It's gonna be some issues between you and I like because she'll complain all the kids are doing this
I'm like, you need and then you know what she'll do. She'll call me. She's like, you know what?
I had to carry the spanking spoon around because the kids weren't paying attention
It makes all the difference in the world.
Now she doesn't have to be like, you know, I'm the disciplinarian, but it's a tag team
effort.
But sometimes I have to tell her, hey, the reason the kids aren't listening to you is
because you're not doing this.
They did a study and they said, kids act up like some ridiculous percentage, like it was
in the hundreds of percent, like 200, 300% worse when they're around their mother than
And I mean, I can attest to that personally in my life.
There's times when my wife has a migraine or she's sick
and I'm like, you know what?
I'm gonna take all, and she's like,
well, don't take the baby with you
because it's just too much.
I was like, no, I'm gonna take everybody.
I'll take them out for breakfast.
And I got the two-year-old and I've got the eight-year-old
and I've got the seven-year-old.
And it's just like, daddy's great.
Right. You ever remember that from Bill Cosby? I know Bill Cosby. I used him. But you know, we grew up with Bill Cosby
I remember he had that that whole little skit. Daddy's great
Gives us chocolate cake, right?
But because daddy's always great because I don't remember why I don't deal with it often
But they also know that I'll be the disciplinarian
and something about moms.
I'll come back and I'm like, honey,
I don't know what you're complaining about.
Like we went and we had breakfast.
Nobody spilled anything.
Nobody cried.
Nobody complained.
The minute we walk in the door and they see mom,
ah, mama, mama.
You know, so we need to support our wives by,
first of all, giving them that authority
in front of our children.
You don't want to undermine your wife's authority at home.
Actually, you want to enhance it by saying,
Her word is like my word, and if you disagree, in my opinion, take it to the Bible, I always,
whenever my wife disagrees with me on a disciplinary action, which is far and few between, I usually
just try to pull her aside and we work it out, not in front of the children, because
I don't want them to see me undermining her or her undermining me, especially me though,
right?
We work that thing out because they need to know we're united front.
I stay in the United Front, I deal with it with my wife and then I correct it later, right?
Because the kids need to know that there's consequences and we're not messing around look. I love my kids
We have a great time. I think that they have a wonderful life
They literally have it way better than I ever grew up and I grew up pretty good
I didn't grow up poor, you know, I didn't grow up rich
But I grew up American middle class in the United States of America like my parents provided for me well
Like I had everything I needed, you know, I never went for anything like wanted for anything my kids have it way better
They've seen more things in this world, they've traveled further, they've gone to more places,
they've got to eat in better food than I ever ate at their age, right? It's just because we just were
more combined, but we don't mess around. Sometimes we have to remove things, right? Let's go to
point number three. The rest of the points are fairly quick, but I just, we need to make this
Look, don't be passive-aggressive, but also don't be passive in your parenting
Because there is a war
For that especially if you and your in your spouse are united front and you're really godly and you're serving the Lord
Guess what if there's no chinks in that armor, you know where the devil's gonna go next your children
Look if you and your wife are solid, you know what the devil's gonna do. He's gonna come after your children
And he's gonna find a way to get them
and you've got to give them that foundation because they're going to grow up to be 15, 16, 17 years old
and the cool uncle is going to come you know that one liberal weird uncle that just has all the stupid
ideas that's why you need to keep him away from weird family but and then they're going to be like
oh well dad he has a great life maybe i should do that and you're like no don't don't do what
I don't know. I don't know what your family looks like, but we had uncles that were losers
And we thought they were the greatest and my mom was like your Theo Juan is not the greatest
No, I was 15. He was awesome
He always stayed up late with us. He played basketball with us. He ate all the same snacks
We did he was I mean he was like one of the guys like it was like and my mom's like your Theo Juan's not
It's not a good influence. He's a cool uncle, but he's not a grown human being but at 15. He was man. He was cool
So my parents had to like constantly be reminding us don't end up like you're the old one
I love my feel one, you know, rest in peace or all that stuff
But he then I got older. I was like, oh, yeah, I know what my parents were talking about
Like you never had a stable job. You basically was a teenager to the day that he died
Right. Nobody wants that kind of adult in their life
Right go you don't have to actually don't go there go over to Genesis 18
I'll read for you really quick in 1st Samuel 313 the Bible says where I have told you
Told him that I will judge his house forever
For the iniquity which you know is because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not speaking of Eli
Right, that was the first one of the first things that Sammy was told of God. He was about Eli and Eli
His failage night and what he did but what he didn't do obviously Eli was serving and his children saw that but he didn't restrain them
He didn't get on to them. He didn't spank them enough
He was passive and it ended up costing him his life
Proverbs 29 15 says the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left himself bringeth his mother to shame
I've already touched on some of these things, but I just wanted to drive this point home
because I think it's important that this point be brought home constantly because people
are always raising children.
Lamentations five or seven says, our fathers have sinned and are not, and we have borne
their iniquities.
Look, my children are going to embarrass me more times than I care to think about.
I've already sinned and made mistakes in my life and I'm going to continue sinning.
So this thing about raising them godly and being in the Word and taking them to church
is really important because we don't need any help with the other side.
Like I don't need to have a whole sermon on how to be a screw up because at any given
moment we can all screw up really bad.
Right. I'm not saying any of you are screw-ups. I'm just saying we're all capable of that, right?
Like we've all made mistakes just like don't if you're offended by that well
Then that's what you're screwing up because I mean we're all screwed right like don't screw up, right?
Point number four is the power of godly examples. So, you know, there's a war for the next generation
There is importance in godly instruction because it's the only instruction that really matters
And because of that you don't want to have this failure of just being a passive parent
And it's really easy to do as your children get a little bit more independent, maybe you
just give them a little bit more leeway.
Find the balance, right?
And that's why I'm trying not to give you specifics of my opinion, because obviously
every parent is different.
I'm not looking at anybody specifically because I don't know your children.
God gave you those children to you.
That's why I don't believe when people are all like, you know, you get these liberals
who are spewing all, you know, you got to remove children from even the worst parent
is God has that parent for a reason, right?
I mean, obviously it's their responsibility to learn and grow and then turn around and
do something for the children.
But I can't control the world and I can't force everybody to do the things that they
Go over to Genesis 18, you're there.
God gives us examples of power of Godly example.
I have some notes here, so I'm trying to get through these points
because I ended up adding some other notes,
but I'm trying to keep it within the hour,
so I'm running out of time here.
Genesis 18 verse 16.
The chapter before Sodom and Gomorrah. I love this
It says and the men rose up from this and look towards Sodom the angels are now headed towards Sodom to destroy it and
Abraham went with them to bring them on the way like he took them almost all the way
It says and the Lord said this is Jesus. We know this is that
That's a whole other summer, but
If you read it, you know what I'm talking about says shall I hide but the Lord says shall I hide from Abraham that thing
Which I do seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be
Blessed in him and I like this it says for I know him
That what that he will command his children and his household after him
And they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he had spoken of him
He wasn't just chosen. I mean God chosen for his faith because we're all saved by grace
But Abraham was chosen specifically out of everybody because of his faithfulness above and beyond just salvation
Right. There's a lot of people that are saved. There's not a lot of faithful Christians
Abraham was faithful the Bible tells us that in Hebrews 11 2nd Timothy 1
Now, 2 Timothy 1 verse 1 says, Paul and the Pauls of Jesus Christ by the will of God according
to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus.
To Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy and peace from God, the Father and Christ
Jesus our Lord.
Hey, also, this just applies to everybody that we lead to Christ, everybody that's in
the church, you're serving somebody spiritually as a son or daughter of that person.
Right it says I thank God whom I serve for my forefathers with pure conscious that without seizing
I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day
greatly desired to see thee being mindful of thy tears that I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the
Unfamed faith that is in thee in thee
Which dealt dwelt first in thy mother that grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice and I'm persuaded that in thee also
Wherefore, I put in the remembrance that thou shalt stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands,
for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
Look, you might not be ever laying hands on anybody in the church, but you are...
I guess proverbially laying hands on your children. You're giving them that blessing to pass on and that is a biblical thing
Right. I mean Abraham blessed his children
Isaac blessed his children. I mean Joe Joseph was blessed by Jacob like a bless you you want to be a blessing to your children
Robert 20 verse 7 says the just man walketh in his integrity his children are blessed after him
And the best way to do sometimes is what to lead
right as my children get older now I don't believe that there's a group of people that believe you
never should spend teenagers which I think is really stupid honestly if you're smart and you've
lived in the world long enough the group of people that probably need the most banking is teenagers
like the most rebellious group of people living under your roof are those that know it all
Right my father-in-law and I my wife. I wish my wife was here to correct me
But because I was butchered it, but he's like hire a teenager. I might not have messed it up
He's this hire a teenager while they still know everything, right?
13 to 18 what is it 19 13 to 19?
Those are the best employees because they know everything, you know nothing
Mom dad, you don't know anything. That's why I hate you. Isn't that all I remember being so mad at my parents because they didn't know anything
They don't understand
The plight of a teenager
I'm being a little facetious, but we need it, you know
But well, you know what I do remember is that whether I rebelled or not in my teenage years my dad
state the course
I remember being 18 and my dad, 19, my dad had open heart surgery,
quintuple open heart surgery, and two weeks later, he was back at work, providing for his family.
And the doctor told him, he said, you need to rest up six weeks.
And he said, no, I'm going to rest up two and go back to work.
That's why I never I try to knock I mean I say I never I complain and I this one is something that you know
You got to work it, but I try not to complain. I have no excuse
My dad taught me how to work
As a matter of fact, my dad is 70 my dad will be 75 this year and he still works almost seven days a week
day from sunup to sundown
People get all you know why people are why we have an assisted living industrial complex
Because people are like oh, let's just retire 55 and never do anything again. Who told you that at 55 you were old
You got a ton of energy, you know pastor Cobb is gonna be he said 90. He's true
He'll be 89 in September, which is two months out. He'll be 90 next year. God willing
He's still out here grinding. I'm like, hey, let's just keep you preaching until the Lord takes you to be honest with you
I keep telling people man if he were to I hope he doesn't die behind the pulpit
We were you know, I mean what a way to go
You say you sound kind of morbid
Why we're all gonna die anyways shoot if he died behind the pulpit the Lord blessed him to his lying breath
Pastor said he had two friends who died behind the pulpit. So, you know, he's got some leadership of some examples, right?
Well, let's go go over to Hebrews 12. Go over to Hebrews 12. We will spend time there, right?
You know, there's a war for the next generation
There's the importance that we need to put and godly instruction
I don't care about the instruction that you learn or don't learn. I care that you apply it based on God and his instructions
But that's not to say, hey, I'm not against you reading a book on parenting, I'm not against
you asking for advice. I think you should do all those things. I think you should try to always
learn how to improve because they're not the specifics there. But you need to get the discernment
on how to apply that from the Word of God. The ultimate authority in your life should always
be the Word of God, right? Don't be a failure with passive parenting.
And I'm talking the extremes, right?
You have the parent who's like over-disciplinant.
They ignore the kid, they ignore the kid,
they ignore the kid, they ignore the kid,
and then they blow up.
So then the kid's confused.
He's like, I gotta wait with it,
I gotta wait with it,
and all of a sudden now I'm not getting away with it.
What's going on?
Now I'm not saying that's wrong, Param.
I'm just saying, you wanna get it,
you wanna put a balance.
Right and then you got the kid, you know, you got the parents who are just like they never do anything
They just let the kids do whatever they want
Right you want to have a proper balance like you want to constantly at least be warning your kids so that they're not caught up
By surprise which by the way kids are always gonna act surprised when you get on to them
You know last week we were was it last week we had a fifth Sunday dinner and I saw my son and he's carrying around the
Spaghetti, you know the lasagna on the plate and I'm running around trying to help everything out and I saw him carrying it like
This and I said son
Grab that plate with two hands like this or you're gonna drop the lasagna
Right as he gets older. I guess I'll use the examples differ, but he's listening. He's watching it right and I
Left I came over here to do something the sanctuary. I went back
Guess what I see on the floor? A lasagna stain.
I knew who it was. I went over it and I said son, did you drop the lasagna?
It was an accident.
No, it wasn't because I literally gave you instructions. So I have two choices
I can say well, you know, he said I'm sorry and I'm just gonna ignore it
No, there's punishment that has to come with that because if not, he's never gonna learn to listen
Just like God it holds his accountable go over to Hebrews 12
But in Proverbs 13 24, but the Bible says he that spareth his rod hated his son
But he that loved with him, chastened at the time.
You know, you just need to read the Bible every once in a while.
You literally, the people that say that you should never spank your children,
hate their children, the Bible says.
I don't care what you think.
I don't care what your opinion is.
The Bible is clear.
If you don't spank your children, you hate them, the Bible says.
Oh, you know, I don't, it doesn't matter.
I don't want to hear it.
Oh, it's just a cop out.
Say whatever you want. That's what the Bible says
Hebrews 12 the Bible says wherefore seeing we're also come past with
About with so great a cloud of witness
Witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which death easily be said as a let us run with patience that race
Which is set before us looking on to Jesus what the author?
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before me endured the cross despising
the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne. Hey, this is the example. This says,
hey, as your parent, as the parent, I'm the author and finisher of their faith while they're at home.
And I teach them with the example of running with, you know, all these things that Jesus did,
that's the example that we need to lead as parents, right? Obviously, we're not going to
Says for consider him that endure such contradiction is contradiction of sinners against himself lest you be weird and faint in your minds
You have not resisted unto blood striving against sin and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto us
Unto you as unto children my son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeseth every son whom he receiveth if you endure chastening
God deals with you as with sons, for who is a son, for what son is he whom the father
chastened is not.
But if ye be without chastisement...
Wherefore, all partakers, then ye are bastards and not sons.
For furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and gave them reverence
shall we not much rather be subjection unto the father of spirits, and live for they verily
for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our prophet that we might
be partakers of his holiness.
Chasing is a good thing. God's doing it. So you need to do it
So the method is you need to train them up, right?
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yielded the peaceable peaceable fruit of
righteousness unto them, which are ex exercised thereby
Wherefore and I love I've used this before but I love this
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight
Paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather
but let it rather be healed." You know what that verse tells me?
Hey, don't be a mopey little baby. That's why I tell my kids, hey, stop, stop it.
When I tell my kids to stop it after I spank them or get onto them and they get a little bit mopey,
I think of this verse because it's literally describing who? A child. What does a child do
when you get onto them? My son did it just like two days ago. I got onto him. I said,
hey, I don't remember what it was. I said, hey, don't do this and he did this.
right? What does it say? Your hands hang down with the feeble knees. You know, they walk around
like this. I have a two year old daughter and she's really cute. But you know, when you get
on tour, but you still got to get on tour. And every time we do it, she's, she's the one that's
done it the most. Don't do this, Daniela. God says, Hey, don't do that. Don't do that. Get over it.
Stop it. You know why? Because I'm correcting you. I'm not punishing you. I'm doing it for your
If God's doing it for us, you need to do it for your kids and you need to hold them accountable.
Colossians 3 verse 18 says,
Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands as it is fit in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them.
Children, obey your parents and all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
Fathers, provoke not your children in anger lest they be discouraged.
Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye services,
men pleases, but in singleness of heart, fear, and God, and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily
as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward
of inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ, but he that doeth wrong shall receive for
the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect of persons."
We're training them up to be leaders and to be servants in the world.
And you're going to have to deal with authority all your life.
You know, there's a generation now we're influencing other nations
because we never trained up our children correctly.
In Mexico, city, right now, there's riots, kind of like the BLM, you know, the Black Lives Matter riots and all these.
And they're literally beating people up and destroying property because they're saying that, you know, too many Americans are going over there and causing the price of everything to go up.
You know what all those teenagers need? It's not money and it's not better jobs and it's not better homes. They need a good whooping.
It's what they need, right?
My mom would never let us go out and do any of that stuff and if we did my dad would whoop on us
That's why I didn't do it. You think I wasn't tempted to fight the man
Of course when you're 18 and you know everything you want to get on some righteous and Ignatian cause, right?
That's when people start protesting and start thinking about politics and think they can change the world
The only way to change the world is to God. Let me give you the final points as we start to close this out
What's the goal? We want a generation that stands, right?
That stands against what? The wiles of the devil. That stands against the tide that's coming.
We need people like Daniel 1, verse 8, the Bible says,
but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat
nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs
that he might not defile himself. Hey, look, he stood up because he was raised right.
And he was willing to obey.
Ecclesiastes 12 verse 1 says remember now the Creator in the days of Thy youth, while
the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when Thou shalt say, I have no pleasure
in them.
Look, our kids don't know what it is to just wake up some days and feel defeated because
they've not been through life.
So it's our duty to make it a little tough on them so they realize that one day tough
things are coming.
This is the best it's gonna be. I'm not saying life's not gonna be great. I'm just saying it comes with a load of problems
I enjoy life. I'm the perpetual
Optimist most people that meet me will you'll figure out real quick that I'm super positive about a lot of things
It's really hard for me to be negative, but that doesn't mean that I live in this like, you know
Fake world where only everything's perfect. No life's tough
You need to give what did it say in the earlier verses and so I'm saying we did we hit not those things from them
Right I remember when my mother-in-law passed, you know, it was a it was a shocking thing
it hit us really hard and
We had to go to Mimi's house and before we did that I called pastor come and I say hey my my mother-in-law passed and
Actually, we
Let me, I'm getting my stories backwards.
When they passed, we told them immediately,
like, we weren't gonna sugarcoat, hey, Mimi's passed.
And they kind of cried, they didn't cry,
they didn't really know what was going on.
It didn't really register.
But then when the time came to view the body,
I was like my wife and I were we both kind of were in the greens that we should just let it happen
But you know, we're like let's just seek out some advice because they were really young
there were three and four or something like that four or five and
I call pastor common. I said hey pastor. I just want to get your opinion
I kind of have the idea of what I want to do
But you know, do you think I should just let my kids view the body? You know, and he's like that
They got to be exposed to death at some point
Those were his words like they're gonna learn about death sooner or later
We didn't hide it and you know what it gave them closure
It was the old it was such a way to just move on and just live live life and people there's people
I've there's people that are like oh
Don't tell Johnny doesn't know that mommy's been in the hospital for a month. We told her she's on vacation
Who's ever met people like that?
Oh, so-and-so doesn't know that so-and-so passed away yet.
We're still trying to figure out how to tell them.
There's no way to, there's no nice way to say, hey, your mom's dead.
There isn't.
You just got to get it.
You got to rip that band-aid, move on, and get that closure.
It's hard to this day to talk about it, period.
That's the pain that they just don't understand yet
You've got to be real with your kids and you've got to be disciplined with your kids
And you've got to let them know why you're doing it as for two reasons number one. We're raising you right number two
I love you actually for several reasons. I guess maybe I shouldn't say two reasons
I'm giving you a bunch of reasons number three. Hey, this is just the way it is
All life's not fair. That's the one I get the most from my kids
I know life's not fair and you know what daddy's not always going to be fair either in your eyes
Sorry, I don't know what to tell you
Right, we want a generation that stands the Bible says low
In Psalm 127 low children are heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the woman's reward as arrows in the hands of a mighty man
So are the children of the youth happy as the men that hath his quiver full of them
They should not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate
Let me just give you the final thing and we'll close out right as a final warning
If you don't raise your kids
somebody well
I'm just telling you that my mom used to tell me that all the time
And I thought she was weird for saying it, but she's not
because somebody
And when it comes to raising people everybody's got an opinion
You know it in modern day. What do we call them Karen's?
Right a male Karen or a female Karen who who's the Karen though the person who's always trying to like
Over emphasize like rules. Oh, you can't park there
Okay, well first of all, you don't know that oh, I'm gonna call the cops
You know stuff like that somebody's always trying to raise you so you better know how to be raised and how to raise other people
right
I've got a couple of minutes if you give me permission, I might go over a few. I've been really good about it
So, you know, if you don't give me permission, I'm still gonna go over a few
but I'd rather you give me some permission, right, but
The final warning is we need to raise our children, right? Because somebody somebody's gonna do it
The left will scream don't don't let them go to church where they preach all this stuff because you're indoctrinating your children
Hello, that's called indoctrination
Right, it's the pot caught it calling the kettle black
Everybody's indoctrinating everybody you turn on CNN and it's like
indoctrination indoctrination indoctrination. It's called propaganda too, right, but you turn on Fox News
Trump indoctrination you got Trump indoctrination you got Obama indoctrination you got Baptist indoctrination
You've got King James only indoctrination. You've got indoctrination about everything
Right, my kids eat tacos every night it seems like you know why because daddy indoctrinated them that they have
50% of their heritage is Mexican and we eat tacos
That's why they eat tacos. You know how they learn to eat tacos because daddy eats tacos
You know why they like quesadillas with nothing in them, but just cheese and and tortillas because that's how we grew up
Which guess it is with cheese and tortilla?
We don't do this American ice version with chicken and everything. We just plain old quesadillas, right?
That's the indoctrination, but here's here's just a couple of things. Here's a couple thoughts that I had
You want to raise them because
The the the balance is actually left is really not fair in that perspective. It's completely skewed you look at the Bible
I mean look at all the bad children in the Bible. You got Cain and Abel
Right Abraham Isaac and Jacob all
Had their moments of obedience and disobedience
You got Eli and his children you got Samuel and his children
You've got Jacob and his 12th. I mean how about the 12 original tribes of Israel the 12 children of Jacob man?
barring Joseph and Benjamin those kids were just like horrible not only did they
want to kill their brother they didn't kill them and then they went to their dad
and said that the kid died they lied to their dad for decades you got King
Josiah who's a great king but you also have King Manasseh right you have Elijah
and the she bears
They make fun those kids are rebellious and God's like hey and people say well the Bible doesn't say that the the she bears killed them
Okay, well
The reason they when you go to like a national park and they say hey carry the bear spray
It's because nine times out of ten if a bear attacks you you know what it means imminent death a bear doesn't attack
Especially the Bible very gives us something very specific. It says a she bear
So I'm just gonna give you some heart doctrine. This is that I really believe that the bears killed
Those children because there's nothing worse than you know, you don't want to get attacked by a female bear because she's taking care of what?
The Cubs right that's why she's attacking because she thinks she you're about to kill her babies
But you know many people today
They would lean or they would espouse the fact that God is a bad and abusive father
Because the Bible says that it pleased to bruise Jesus Christ
We need to get rid of that attitude. You know, literally God the father
instructed his son to die for us on the cross literally it wasn't just Jesus who was willing to do it God said this is the plan
The plan is son Jesus you're gonna go
And you're gonna become a man in the flesh and you're gonna die on the cross and it's gonna make me happy
Everyone's like, oh, you should have spanked your children.
Hey, it makes me happy.
I don't like spanking my children.
You know what, it makes me happy when I spank them,
and then they're just better for it.
Right, I love going some places and it happens a lot and it's not bragging
It's just that they listen it happens a lot
Well, we'll go place the people like oh you have such a beautiful family. Oh your kids are so well-behaved
There's other times where I'm like I wish I could just crawl in a hole
Just let me let you know that it's not always like that. There's other times where I'm like
Why did we even go out with our children today? What in the world happened? There's time look
I'm preaching this sermon right now.
I'm just gonna be, that way you guys don't think
I'm trying to preach this perfect thing.
And I'm about to get on my son
and he's gonna remember this sermon
because I just looked over there
and I see two feet sticking up
because he's lying down upside down on the pulpit.
So let me just put it to you that it's not like that.
But you know what I will do?
I will apply the verses in this Bible
and I will deal with my children
the way God told me to deal with my children.
Right?
You may think it's funny,
but I know he doesn't think it's funny.
And you might disagree with the fact that I'm even saying it from the pulpit.
You know what?
You parent your children the way you want to, but you follow the Bible.
I don't need your opinion.
Give me chapter and verse on where you disagree with the way I raise my children.
Right?
Last thing, I really am like, let me just wrap this thing up because I really want to get
these points across.
I'm not even going to touch all the verses.
I'm just going to get this point.
But we need correction also, and you know what the correction does, it elevates our kids.
We want our kids to stand out.
The way they're going to be better is we show them love, and the only way to love them is
to correct them, because that's what the Bible says.
I'm not even giving you my opinion right now, I'm just actually, I'm just breaking down
what I just told you.
Right the Bible literally says Jesus loves the little children, right? That's the song Jesus loves the little children
We get that from those verses in the gospel, but you know who?
What that application is it's not just the literal children. It's us his spiritual children
Look, it makes it easier to be chastised if you're constantly chastising your children
Because you remind yourself. Oh man, God's gonna get on to me, too
Because you're making mistakes. I'm making mistakes. The goal the goal is to get our children saved
Not to have these perfect children
You're dumb if you're if your goal is to have perfect children. I'm just gonna call it a call it like I see it
You're an idiot if you think oh well if I do all this my children should be perfect. You can't control another human being
Other than when they're in your home because the minute they leave your house
They're gonna do whatever the hell they want anyways
So you might as well give them the tools to do whatever the hell they want under God's guidance so that they were reminded constantly
Oh, I'm an idiot. Thank you Lord. Let me get back on track. Just like my daddy used to teach me. Oh, I'm an idiot
Thank you for leaving. Thank you Lord for teaching me. I'm sorry Lord. I'm Lord
You know, he's keeping you straight because you're doing that all the time
You know, what's you know, what's the bonus if they serve the Lord?
That's the bonus. You got to give them biblical instruction. You know what the bonus is?
When they continue what you started because there's no guarantee
You want to give them worldly wisdom? The Bible says we wise the serpent gentle as a dove
but
I don't care if they have world success.
I don't want them to be greedy for wealth.
I just want to teach them the things that they need to do.
Hey, you need to get a job.
You need to have consistency. You need to pay your bills.
You need to provide for your wife.
You need to be a submissive wife.
You know, it depends on who I'm talking to, right?
You want to give them skills.
The bonus is if they master those skills.
You want to give them information.
The bonus is the knowledge that they apply it with that information.
You want to give them an education, but the bonus is that they continue to want to learn.
There's no guarantee.
I can't force my children to read books after they leave the home.
I have to live with them.
You want to give them a model of leadership.
The bonus is that they would carry that model to the next generation.
The bonus is that they would remain sure and steadfast with that stability, right?
And then the final thing is you want to give them social skills. The bonus is that they actually learn self-confidence
Based on the word of God
The one thing I'm not I've said this before I wish I could give you all the verses
I'll close out with this is just there's no guarantee
That your children are gonna be who you think they're gonna be as a matter of fact. I guarantee you this
Chances are I'm almost a hundred percent. I could almost write on a book that whatever you think your children are gonna be they're not
Just let's just put that right there my dad had this dream and he I think he's the one that indoctrinated me because he said
I said it from a little child that I was gonna be a doctor and I mean until my 30s
He was so disappointed in me for not being a doctor and I had to carry that way for so long
And then I realized that God had a better plan for me
But I mean he just wanted it so bad
And if he put all his, you know, and by the way, my dad and I were great just say sometimes we overdo it
But you know what? I do want my both of my oldest are saved
If they never do anything else, we'll see each other in heaven
If they get mad and say well, I don't like church and I hate God. I'll be like son daughter. You're an idiot because you're saved
What do you mean you hate God?
We'll see you in heaven, man, a little bit earlier than you should be, because the Bible
gives us, God's clear, we need to focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, but man, as a father,
you need to learn all of this and implement it correctly, because people, as men, sometimes
we get a little frustrated maybe with our wives or with our children, you need to look
for the Word of God and realize, it's your duty.
If anything's going wrong in your house, if your wife's not doing the things you want
to do, if your kids aren't doing the things they want to do, it's your fault.
Eve was deceived, but Adam sinned.
Right, I'd give you all the verse. I'm just gonna throw them out there
But I mean there's plenty on the rod of correction, right Proverbs 23 14
Revelation 227 Psalm 89 32 Proverbs 14 3 Proverbs 23 13
Psalm 23 4 Proverbs 13 24 Proverbs 26 3 Proverbs 10 3 and not all of them apply to children specifically
But they applied a correction Revelation 19 15 and I stopped there. There's a ton in the Bible
about raising godly children but I wanted to make that disclaimer because people will click on this
thinking they're going to get like some how-to on how to raise your children there is no manual
you better figure that thing out on your own and you don't know read your bible so you can get a
plan the bible also tells us to plan things out doesn't it says who going to war doesn't at least
count the cost or making a castle doesn't count the cost right hey you're going to have children
There's so many of our family members on both sides, so I'm not picking on anybody if they're listening
They have kids drop them off at daycare drop them off at this drop them off here
Leave them with so-and-so leave them with so-and-so and then you wonder why our generations are the way they are
So thank you for giving me an extra 10 minutes. Let's close it a word of prayer. Heavenly Father Lord. Thank you so much for today
Thank you for the opportunity just learn Lord and Lord
Remind us as adults that we need to be chastised and we should look to the chastisement as the correction
We need to grow and then when we would then turn around and apply it to our children that that's the goal is
correction
The goal is to lead them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Lord and it's to remove all our feelings
All our opinions all our thoughts and what we think proper parenting is and just apply
What God you've told us in your book is correct and right parenting what is right?
What's right in your eyes not in our eyes Lord?
I just pray that we would raise the next generation to stand against the wiles of the devil and to stem the tide
Thank you for this day.
Help us to have a good week.
In Jesus' name we pray.
All right.
Oh, I'm sorry, Mo.
You know what?
We'll do it next week.
This was the week that we messed up.
We just started it.